heartlines
by BlueEyes444
Summary: He doesn't know precisely when he falls in love with her. -ScorpiusLily, for Chi.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.**

**For Chi, who wanted fluffy!LilyScorpius. I did my best. :P**

* * *

i.

He is not looking at Lily's arse, he tells himself firmly. Why would he be? He's not like he hasn't seen that arse plenty of times before.

And that sounds way wrong.

He takes a sip of his punch and looks away from Lily and her tight pants and her perfect arse and instead studies Rose. Rose is safe. She's flirting with some cute blonde and for a moment, he just watches her. She's more relaxed than he's ever seen her and that's over ten years of friendship he's talking about.

He glances down at his cup than back at her. Maybe it's the eggnog.

She laughs loudly.

Yep, the eggnog.

Huh.

It's probably spiked something awful to let Rose be so wild.

He takes a sip and places it casually on a table. He doesn't need get wasted tonight. Knowing how all of James's parties go, there needs to be at least one person sober. And judging about how Rose is all over that blonde, it won't be her.

He props himself up against the wall and tries to spot Albus in the crowd. No luck. He's probably off doing something not fun.

Sighing, he brings his mobile, best Muggle device ever, and starts scrolling through his contacts. Maybe he'll text him, see if he can find him or if he's too wasted to reply. He smirks. Albus wasted is rare but a very amusing sight.

"You look as bored as I am."

He looks up to see Lily in front of him.

"Hey Lils," he says, offering her a smile, trying to keep his eyes on nothing but her face. Not a good idea to look anywhere else. Not a good idea at all. "You look great. Romania really did you well." And it did.

She grew up, he thinks. Grew up to be...no, not going there, not right now.

She offers a smile in return. "Thanks, Scorpius." She pauses. "You don't look too bad yourself." She adjusts one of her hoop earrings and he is memorized by the action.

He blinks, laughs. "Well, thanks. I think." A strange feeling settles in his stomach. He wets his lips. "You staying in town?"

"Yeah, yeah I think I am," she says, smiling just a little. "At least for a couple months."

Somebody calls her name and she quickly excuses herself with a simple "see you around" before she leaves.

He watches her walk around before scrubbing a hand across his face. What the hell is the matter with him? He and Lily have never been really close, nothing more than name calling and teasing. And now he thinks she has a good arse? That she's really quite beautiful? Ugh. This is not good. He's positive that somewhere in the Best Mate Code book it says that you can't be even remotely attracted to the younger sister of said best mate. He's sure it's in there somewhere.

The attraction will pass. It has too.

He picks up his eggnog and takes a long drink from it.

Screw sobriety.

* * *

ii.

It's three weeks since James's party and he's proud to say he hasn't thought about Lily once.

Okay, there was that one time that he thought he saw her.

And there was that other time that he accidentally called out her name instead of the cute blonde's he was shagging at the time.

Yeah and don't forget that time where he found a picture of her on his mobile.

Okay, he lied. He has thought of her.

All the damn time.

He stares moodily at his glass.

How the hell has she got herself so easily into his thoughts like this?

"What did that bloody thing ever do to you, kid?"

He startles, almost drops his glass.

He'd forgotten that Dominique was crashing in his and Al's flat for a couple days.

"Wait, what?"

Dominique motions to his glass. "Well, you were scowling at it. Looked like you wanted to throw it."

"Ugh," he says, placing the glass on the table and walking over to the sofa. "That's actually a pretty good idea, Nique."

She follows him. "What's wrong?"

Dominique and him have always gotten along, her being like the older sister he never had, him being another younger brother, more annoying than Louis though.

He sighs, sinks into the sofa's cushions. "Well, there's this girl."

"Isn't it always?" she asks, raising her eyebrows. At his look, she motions for him to continue. "Sorry."

"Anyway, there's this girl," he says. "And I've known her for a long time and I've always thought of her as a kid sister and then suddenly, like out of the blue, I'm seeing her as this sexy, hot woman who I really wouldn't mind shagging."

"Why don't you then?"

He chokes and it takes a moment for him to regain his breath. "Because...because I can't."

She leans back, studies him curiously. "I've never known you to say that before."

He sighs, slumps his shoulders. He hasn't realized how upset he was about this whole thing or lack of with Lily until now. "Because I know her brother and he's my best mate and just...I can't."

"Wait...you're not talking about Lily, are you?"

His eyes widened. "I...of course not. Of course not," he says, words falling over themselves to get out of his mouth.

She stares at him for a moment before chuckling. "Bloody hell, it is, isn't it? This "sexy, hot" woman is Lily."

He buries his head in his hands. There's no point denying it again. Dominique's always been good at spotting lies. "Yes, yes it is and I don't know what to do about it because I think me being attracted to Lily is in the Major Awkward Territory."

Dominique is silent for a moment. "Why don't you just go ask he if she wants to shag?"

He grabs a pillow and whacks her with it. "It's not that simple."

"Why not?"

Because it's not, he wants to say. Because she's special. Because I want it to be more than just a one time thing. I want something with her.

He stays silent.

If he speaks up, it'll go into Complicated Territory really fast and he doesn't do complicated.

* * *

iii.

"I don't know what exactly is going on with Lily," Albus says.

"What do you mean?" he asks, trying not to sound interested. He doesn't care. No, of course he doesn't. He doesn't have the right to care, nope.

Albus shrugs, flips a page of the book he's reading. "I don't know. I think she's trying to impress someone. Have you seen the dresses she's been wearing?"

"No," he says. "I haven't seen her in a while." Because when he does, he wants to snog or shag her senseless. And that really wouldn't do. Especially seeing that he's more than a hundred percent she'll never see him as anything but the boy she likes to make fun of. And if he ever does anything with her that isn't talking, it'll go into Not Good Territory.

"Well, she's been wearing these really short dresses, short skirts, tight tops," he says, waving a hand in the air. "And I'm sure we can both agree that she doesn't wear skirts or dresses very often. So, the only thing I can come up with is she's trying to impress someone. My guess a bloke she's crushing on."

He swallows down a bitter taste. "Any idea on who it is?" He's surprised his voice comes out normal.

Albus shrugs again. "James thinks it's Teddy again. I think it's more likely to be one of the Scamander boys."

"Oh." The word catches in his throat and he has to clear it before he can continue. "Well, you know. Who knows what goes on in Lily's head." He stands up. "I'm going to the loo. Be back in a minute."

He leaves before he can see Albus's knowing smile.

* * *

iv.

He steps in through the front door to find her sprawled across the couch, several bags thrown across the floor.

"Lily?" he asks, shutting the door behind him with his foot.

She sniffles. "Hey, Scorpius."

He walks cautiously over to her. This looks like it could be a Girl Problem Of Some Kind and well, he doesn't do that kind of stuff.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," she says. "I guess I am." She pauses. "I'm crashing here for a couple of days if that's okay."

"Of course," he says, walking over to the kitchen. "Can I make you anything? Coffee, a cuppa?"

"No, thanks," she says, adjusting her place on the couch. "I'm going to lay here and mope for a bit than go find some Rocky Road."

"Ah, okay," he says, feeling a bit daft, feeling like he should know what all this means. "I'm just here to pick up a new shirt." He motions to his chest where a large coffee stain is spreading across the front of his shirt. He spies one that is thrown across the back of one of the chairs. Going over, her finds it's not his but Albus'. Oh, well. He'll never know. "I'll leave you to your moping. And there is some Rocky Road in the freezer."

As he turns to go, she says, "Thanks, Scorpius."

"For what?" he asks, turning around.

"For not asking about this," she says, motioning to all her bags.

He nods before leaving.

If he did ask, he wouldn't know where to start anyway.

* * *

v.

It takes him a couple days but eventually he notices that he's never seen her in those short skirts and dresses that Albus mentioned she was wearing.

Frowning, he shots her a glance where she's sitting, watching the telly.

What does this mean? Does it mean that she's done trying to impress? Or did she already impress someone and has gotten the desired result from them? Or was it even that? She might not have even been trying to impress anyone.

He realizes this whole thing bothers him a lot more than it should.

* * *

vi.

Over the next week or so, they settle in a comfortable routine.

She sleeps in Albus's room who in turn crashes in his room and he never thought he would say but he really likes having her here.

She makes him laugh and she can cook better than Albus and him combined and when he comes home from a long day to find her playing Christmas songs on the violin, he thinks this is what he's been missing.

He discovers that there's more to her than just her looks, more to her than her name calling and taunting. Lily Potter is a complex puzzle.

He always did like puzzles.

* * *

vii.

He doesn't know precisely when he falls in love with her.

All he knows is that one day he realizes that he can't live without her.

It's a strange feeling.

* * *

viii.

"Mate, this is ridiculous,"Albus announces as he flies through the door, shopping bags in hand.

He glances up from the newspaper, eyes the bags that Albus is laying on the floor. Bags...hm. Oh, yes. His birthday is tomorrow. He forgot.

He's never really liked his birthday.

"What is?" he asks, just now realizing that Albus said something.

"The sexual tension in this flat," he says.

"Wait, what?" The gets his attention. He jerks down his paper, staring at him with wide eyes.

He waves a hand at him. "The sexual tension between you and Lily. It's getting really ridiculous."

"Wait, what?" he repeats and he feels stupid for doing it but...bloody hell, Albus knows. He knows about his feelings for Lily. Wait. Between...? His confusion must have shown on his face because Albus sighs loudly.

"Everyone knows that you fancy Lily and she fancies you," he says impatiently. "Why don't you guys just snog already?"

He blinks, feeling stunned. "She fancies me?"

"Of course," Albus says incredulously, turning to place a bag on the table. "You remember I told you about her dressing up? She was trying to impress you." He shakes his head, mutters something about daft, blind idiots before turning to face him. "Why don't you do something about it? Seeing that it looks like Lily won't ever." He frowns. "I'll support you two, I will, but if you hurt her, I will kill you. Understand?"

He nods, still reeling from what Albus said. Lily fancied him.

A slow smile creeps across his lips.

Who would have thought.

* * *

xi.

By the time Lily comes home from work that night, he still hasn't come up with a way to broach the subject without showing just how awkward and clueless he's about these type of romantic situations.

While Lily rambles on about her day to Albus, he leans against the counter and tries not to look at her. How is he going to do this? He doesn't want to blow it, doesn't want to lose her or make things weird. Yes, Albus said she faniced him but what if he was wrong? He doesn't think he is but. There's always that chance.

"Lily Potter, I'm in love with you," he says and it's only when Lily and Albus suddenly go silent, he realizes he said that out loud.

Damn.

Oh, well, that solved his problem of what he was going to do.

"Well, that's one way to do it," Albus says, way too cheerfully before chuckling. "So, yeah, I, um, think I'll leave you two alone for a bit." With that, he heads to his bedroom.

Lily waits until they hear the sound of his door clicking before saying, "So. You love me? Well, funny enough, I love you too."

He jerks his gaze up, eyes wide. "What?"

"Yeah," Lily says, reaching over and grabbing his hand. "I love you."

He licks his lips, tightening his grip around her hand. Leaning close,he wraps his other hand in her hair. "Would you mind terribly if I snogged you senseless right about now?" She loves him, and he loves her and at a later time, he knows they'll need to talk about it but right now, all he can think about is how wonderful her lips against his would be.

Lily smiles. "No, no, I don't think I would mind. Not at all."


End file.
